a day of firsts

Today, my mom, aunt Becky, Tobey, and I went to visit my great aunt Sue in Blairsville (my mom and aunt Becky's aunt and Tobey's great great aunt). On the way to Blairsville, we stopped at McDonalds for a bathroom break, and my mom bought a cheeseburger for Tobey because it was his lunch time. He must have been starving because he grabbed that burger with both hands and gobbled almost the whole thing down. This was his very first burger.

Then when we were visiting my great aunt in the nursing home, Tobey opened my purse, pulled out a diaper, and laid down on the ground acting like "okay, change me now!" He is becoming more and more sensitive to dirty diapers.  We were all cracking up.

My great aunt seems to be doing well.  She was very "with it". She even commented that Tobey looked like me, but he had really big teeth. True, true.

Another first, Tobey thought it hilarious to stick his finger in his nose and then put it in his mouth. Nice.

On a side note, we crossed a road called "Jot-em Down Road". Really? Jot what down?

tobey's first two-word phrase

And guess what it was?  "No, mama."  He was trying to eat tree bark so I picked him up to move him.  As soon as I grabbed a hold of him, he knew what was up, and that's when he said it.  Crazy kid.

just another day being a mom

My mom and aunt came to visit us today, and I had to pick them up at the MARTA station.  While we were waiting for their train to arrive, Tobey pooped in his diaper.  There was no where to change him, so I stuck him in my lap.  I got his diaper off, and as I started to ball it up to toss it out (had a disposable since we were out and about), his entire poop fell into my lap.  I picked it up with a wipe, put it back in his diaper, and continued rolling it up.  We then continued on with our day like nothing had happened.

catch up goal

Since Tobey is now 19 months old, there is already a lot of his life I have missed documenting.  My goal will be to document one month of his life per week, so hopefully it will only take me 19 weeks to get all caught up.  My goal for this week will be to document that first month of life, but since my mom and aunt will be in town, I'm not sure when I'll do it.  I hope I don't mess up on my goal the very first week!  :)

tobey is 19 months old today

Tobey turned 19 months old today.  His favorite food is cheese, and his favorite word to say is still mama.  He loves to play outdoors, and his favorite thing to do when outside is throw dirt and leaves on the dogs.  He now knows his colors and is even trying to say them.  Blue is the only one that is understandable.  He loves trains, "gagas".  Adam bought him a tricycle today off Craigslist, but he is not so sure how to use it yet.

Happy 19 months Tobey!

He doesn't seem very happy in these pictures, but that is only because he is a sleepy boy!

tobey's birth story

I didn't give much thought to Tobey's birth during my pregnancy.  I just kept thinking to myself that it would be one day in my life so no use thinking about it or planning for it.  My biggest concern was when Tobey was going to come and if I would go into labor naturally.  My ob had set my due date as February 27th, but I knew that my true due date was March 5th since I practice NFP (Natural Family Planning) and I knew exactly when I ovulated.  My fear was that my body would not be ready to give birth at the ob's assigned due date because I was a week behind.

So Thursday, February 25th, I had a regularly scheduled ob appointment.  During my appointment, I actually got to see my doctor (which didn't always happen), and she basically said that the baby wasn't coming on his own and I had to pick either March 2nd or March 6th to be induced.  She said those were my only 2 options.  She really wanted me to pick March 2nd because she felt the sooner the better.

I left the appt really upset and really disappointed.  I was so disappointed that this doctor was not giving my body the chance to do what it is meant to do naturally.  I needed more time than that.  I decided on March 6th as an induction date knowing that at least it would be after my true due date, but it really bothered me picking a day to birth my baby.

That night, I talked to a friend who is a NICU nurse at the hospital, and she really calmed my fears about my decision to get induced on the 6th.  I was still not happy about the whole induction thing, but I was feeling better and looking forward to having another week to relax and prepare.  I then settled down on the couch to watch the winter olympics which is what I had been doing every night for almost 2 weeks.

At 1am-ish I was half awake tossing and turning for what felt like a long time.  At some point, I was having what felt like menstrual cramps which I thought was very strange since no one mentioned cramps in our birthing class.   Then I started to freak out because I couldn't feel the baby.  So for the first time in my entire pregnancy, I called the midwife who was on call.  She reassured me that this was normal and usually indicated that labor would be starting soon.  She told me to take some Tylenol PMs and take a hot bath and then go back to bed.  By this time, it was 3am, and as soon as I got in the bath, I felt my first contraction.

I got back and bed, and Adam and I started to time my contractions.  They were consistently 6 minutes for over two hours.  I couldn't sleep this whole time because the contractions kept waking me up, but Adam slept right by my side with his hand on my stomach.  At about 5am, they seemed to start getting closer so we got more serious about timing them.

Sometime between 5:30am and 6am, we decided it was time to call the midwife again.  My contractions were anywhere between 2 and 5 minutes apart.  Adam and I were thinking that it was not real labor because the contractions were not consistent, which for some reason we thought was necessary for labor.  The midwife said to come on into the hospital if that is what we wanted to do.  Of course it was!  We were terrified!

So at 6am we slowly start getting ready.  I took a shower, dried my hair, put on makeup.  Adam sat down and had breakfast.  I called my boss to let her know that I would not be at work today.  Eventually we got ourselves together and left the house at 7am.  My neighbor still talks about how he saw us leave the house early that morning and thought to himself that the only reason we would be leaving that early is if we were having a baby...too bad a had to leave more like at 6am - 6:30am to get to work for the last 2 years!  :(

At this point, I was so glad we chose Northside Forsyth because it was only 15 minutes away, and there would be minimal traffic.  Adam really dislikes a certain route that I like to take when going towards Cumming, but since I was the one in labor, I got to pick which way we went!  Ha!

7:21am - checked into the hospital.  I think we were in room B4, but I can't be sure.  All I know is that Forsyth has beautiful rooms, and I was so glad to be there.  Adam and I were so excited, but nervous.  We honestly thought we'd be sent home.  It seems that most first time parents get sent home from the hospital at least once.

8:30am - Got checked by the charge nurse.  She was great!  I think her name was Kim, but I can't be too sure.  At that point I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced.  She said the baby was very low and that I was definitely in labor.  Adam and I were relieved to know that we would be staying and having a baby, and we finally called our families.  My mom and aunt Becky went straight for the airport.  Adam's family was at work, and since we figured it would be an all day thing, there was no point in them dropping everything that they were doing.

9am - 9:30am - Although my ob only gave me 2 options for inductions because those were the dates that someone from our practice would be at Forsyth, she was at the hospital the day I was in labor.  She had a c-section and a surgery scheduled.  So sometime between 9 and 9:30, she came into my room.  She was shocked to see me there, but I think she was happy because she didn't have to deal with me not wanting to be induced.  She broke my water, and we got our first bad news of the pregnancy:  there was meconium in the fluid.  My doctor explained to me that because of the meconium, I would have to stay in the bed during my labor and be strapped into all the monitors at all times.  The NICU team would be attending the delivery, and I would be unable to hold the baby once he was born.  His cord would be quickly cut, and he would be handed over to the NICU team for suctioning.

10:30am - I got checked and was somewhere between 4 and 5 cm.  This is about the time when I started to feel a little uncomfortable during my contractions, but they were still very manageable.  I was not in a lot of pain, but it was starting to build.  They told me that going forward, they would not be checking me very often due to the meconium and the risk of infection.  The nurse started to ask me if I wanted an epidural.  She explained to me that my doctor ordered pitocin for me because she wanted the baby out fast because of the meconium.  But thankfully, I had an awesome nurse (I think her name was Amy), and she said that as long as I continued to progress, she would not give me pit.

At this point I felt like I had to make a decision.  I didn't want an epidural, but I really hadn't thought too much about my labor and how to prepare for the pain.  Since there was the threat of pit, and knowing that an epidural would allow me to relax and speed labor along, I decided to do it because I was nervous little Tobey would end up in the NICU b/c of the meconium.  While I don't think epidurals are bad in and of themselves, I do think that women are meant to experience the pain of labor.  Genesis 3:16 - "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children..."  Women are intended by God to endure that suffering for their children as Christ suffered on the cross for us.  It's a way for women to unite their sufferings with Christ.  Anyways, that's something I am going to think about and pray about next time around, but for Tobey, I feel I made the right decision considering the circumstances.

11:30am - The anes. doc finally comes in to administer the epidural.  Around the same time, my pain went from 0 to 60.  Not only was I in unbearable pain during each contraction, I felt like I was going to vomit and pass out at the same time.  Hindsight is 20/20, and now I know that I was in transition by that point (somewhere between 7 and 10 cm dilated).  At the time, I didn't know that because they didn't want to check me.  So as I am getting the epidural, Adam and the nurse are right in front of me, but I can't see either of them because of the pain.  The epidural was the craziest thing...I felt like I was getting electrocuted in the back.  Not cool.  I'm pretty sure I was screaming.

11:45am - I was so glad the epidural was all over with, and I could now take a nap.  I laid down thinking that I had all afternoon to get some sleep since I had been up most of the night.  Adam went to get some lunch.

12:30pm - The midwife comes into my room, lifts up my leg, and asks if I feel anything.  I told her I couldn't feel anything.  She said that I should because the baby was crowning, and it was time to start pushing.  When I heard this, I was freaking out.  I could not believe it was time.  This was the moment.  She then started to make some phone calls and got things set up.  She would deliver the baby because my ob was in her surgery.

12:45pm - Time to push!  I was surprised at how exhausting pushing was.  It took about 7 or 8 pushes to get the babe out.

1:09pm - Tobey Adam was born!  He was rushed over to the NICU team who suctioned him out.  They said that he had swallowed more meconium then they had seen in a long time.  They were working on him for about 30 minutes.  He finally started to cry, and he was very high pitched.  The nurses said that he sounded like a little girl, which I found a little insulting.  They also said he was a peanut and guessed that he would weigh 6#, 7oz.  I called my mom, but she was in the air on her flight so I had to leave her a message.

Tobey Adam

February 26, 2010 @ 1:09pm

7#, 2.5oz

20 3/4 inches long

pregnancy with tobey

I figured that I would start from the beginning with Tobey as a way to go back and document his life up to this point.  Plus, I need to write all this down before I forget it.

pregnancy with tobey
The day we found out that we were expecting Tobey, Adam and I had gone out to look at backsplash tile and pick out paint colors for our kitchen that we were redoing ourselves.  It was the July 4th weekend of 2009, and we were both off on Friday the 3rd.  We went down to Lilburn to look at some tile, and then we stopped at Lowe's to look at paint.  We also picked up some stuff to make horseshoe pits in the backyard. (We are still yet to play horseshoes over 2 years later.)

When we got home, I took the test and left it in the bathroom.  I didn't think I would be pregnant and totally forgot about the test.  Finally, I decided to go back in the bathroom to verify that it was negative.  I didn't tell Adam that I was about to look at it because I figured it would be a waste of his time.  When I walked it the bathroom and saw that it was positive, I shrieked!  I quickly took the test out to Adam.  I don't know what I said, but he told me that he figured I did that shriek because I saw dog vomit or something.

The rest of that day I laid around because I figured, hey, I'm pregnant and I need to rest.  Adam spent the day in the backyard working on our horseshoe pits that are now Tobey's sandboxes.

The next day we had some friends over to celebrate Fourth of July.  Adam and I were busting with excitement, but we kept our secret until about 10 weeks or so when we knew for sure that everything would go well.

So after that everything went pretty well.  I had bad morning sickness until 13 weeks (according to my schedule; it was 14 weeks according to the schedule my ob came up with).  I thought I was going to die, or at least be sick for 9 months.  But all of a sudden it was over.  I was also tired during that time, but the constant nausea overshadowed everything else.

My favorite nausea story (or not so favorite) was when I was driving to work at Northside Hospital in Atlanta on Peachtree Industrial Blvd in pouring down rain.  I was moving about 5 mph on the highway portion when all of a sudden I knew my breakfast was going to come up.  All I could do was open my door, while driving, stick my head out, and loose it.  But of course I didn't feel better at all afterwards, and I was soaking wet.

Moving forward, things went really well once I felt better.  I even helped Adam lay hardwoods throughout our entire house.  Not so fun working on a three week project with no furniture in your house when you are 7 months pregnant.  During those three weeks were the only time that I had swollen feet.

I walked about 3 or 4 times a week while pregnant up until the very last week.  I felt really good and was rarely uncomfortable.  I felt really lucky, but I think it was because I was in really good shape prior to getting pregnant.

Adam and I had a really difficult time coming up with a name for Tobey.  We didn't agree on anything.  I wanted to name him Augustine (pronounced August-teen), and Adam wanted to name him Issac, but I couldn't imagine him with any other name now that he is here.  Tobey just suits him so well.  And I have to give credit to my mom for the spelling.  We were originally going to spell it "Toby", but my mom suggested "Tobey", which we like a lot more.

I loved being pregnant with Tobey.  First of all, he was all mine, which I know is selfish, but I can't help but feel that way.  Secondly, I loved feeling him move.  He had a habit of sticking his butt up into the upper right side of me which made me look totally lop-sided.  My only regret is not taking more pictures of myself pregnant.  Here are a few:

One last pregnancy story:  One week before Tobey was due (I was 39 weeks according to the ob but 38 according to my calculations), we decided to take the dogs to the dog park for one last romp around the park before our four-legged babies were to be replaced by our two-legged baby.  When we got out of the car, somehow Penny got loose and ran around the parking lot like the wild woman she is.  So of course I start running after my precious baby girl.  I am 9 months pregnant and running after a crazy dog.  It felt like I was chasing her forever.  Eventually, some people enticed her into jumping in their car.  God bless these people!  The next day my legs were so sore...more sore than they were after my half-marathons.

Oh, I forgot to mention my cravings!  Coke, refried beans, tortino's pizza rolls, and brownies (only the last 6 weeks though...I would eat half a pan in one sitting).

I can't think of much else to say about my pregnancy with Tobey.  It just went so well.  Next post will be about his birth story.

starting my blog

I have come to the realization that I have done a poor job documenting Tobey's life and our life as a family as my sister has been asking me a few questions regarding when Tobey did such and such.  Honestly, I don't remember and I don't have it written down.  I really wish that I did, not just so I could answer her questions, but also so I'd have a reference if and when we have another little one.  Plus, I want to always remember what Tobey was like as a little guy.  I want to remember these moments by documenting them.

Previously, I had put everything on Facebook.  While it's great to share what Tobey is doing immediately with my family and friends, I have no way of going back and see what he was doing at 6 months old or 9 months old, for example.

So I am starting a blog.  I don't plan on using proper English or spelling so don't call me out on it.  Also, I may not proofread because stay-at-home mom's just don't have time for that nonsense.  I just want to get things documented.  I'll try to go back and document certain things about Tobey's first 19 months of life, but that will certainly be a process.

So here we go.  Welcome to my blog!